Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.

The moderators of 4Real welcome you and thank you for your cooperation. Our greatest hope is to make moderating decisions that best meet our ministry goals, as stated on our homepage, and provide a respectful environment .

Here are a list of principles that will act as the foundation for moderator decisions:

Healthy Priorities and Limits

1. The moderators at 4Real are Catholic wives and mothers first and foremost who support each other and our members to put God and family before message board participation.

2. We are home educators who enjoy sharing our journey yet donít see ourselves as home educating experts.

3. We act as fellow members, except under the few circumstances when the board benefits from a moderatorís help.

4. We encourage each moderator to spend less than an hour daily on strictly moderating duties, we are not on-call, and we will return Private Messages at our convenience.

5. We close the board on Sundays, during Holy Week, for a couple days at Christmas, and twice a year for a brief moderator retreat that will be announced.

Moderator Disposition

1. Moderators have the privilege and responsibility to make decisions. There are no perfect decisions.

2. Moderators will pray before each decision and ask for help from other moderators.

3. Moderators will be deliberate and take as much time as needed to make a decision.

4. Moderators will make independent decisions for basic work and will ask for more input from other moderators as matters become more challenging.

5. It is never our intent to rebuke (sharply criticize,) embarrass, or control members. We strive to moderate not in a spirit of fearfulness, but rather out of prudence in light of what we think will best serve our current needs and future goals for the board.

Post Content

1. If a topic is:

- a political action bulletin
- a topic beyond the scope of this ministry
- historically divisive
- about a prudential decision between spouses
- about a need requiring expert care

the post may receive a Proactive Lock to prevent discussion. An explanation and supportive direction will be included. Topics or wording may be edited for clarity or moderators will ask for clarification.

2. If a post speculates about *any* person's motives or casts them in a bad light, the speculation will be defined and the discussion redirected or the post will be edited or deleted and the member will be PM'd. Repeat offenders will be asked to leave the board.

3. If our Terms of Membership and Posting are breached within a topic we will gently redirect topic and give reason for concern to include warning new members of potential escalation of emotions related to the topic in the past.

Moderator Duties and Tools

1. In Living Education forums, we ensure all questions get addressed, initiate topics of interest related to the forum we moderate, brainstorm ideas from our experience, move topics to the most appropriate forum, upload pictures and files for members, and hold ourselves to a high standard of faithfulness to the teachings of the Catholic Church as they relate to home education, the main focus of our ministry.

2. In Home as Haven forums, we do the above plus we watch carefully for kind and supportive tone and gently direct discussion to stay on topic. We hold ourselves to a lesser responsibility to interpret Catholic Church teaching and how they relate to topics outside of education, such as health care and child rearing.

3. Our tools are the documents in About Us. We remind members of and link to these pertinent documents when needed to explain, educate, and provide consistency.

Assumptions about Member Participation

1. We assume the best of members and give benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.

2. Members can wait patiently for our help.

3. A smoothly running message board is dependent less on moderating and more on the cooperation and willingness of all members to follow the Terms of Membership and Posting.

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